Cyklon Cyklonette

Pushing the three-wheeled envelope

Feature Article from Hemmings Motor News

Three-wheelers never made much of an impression in America. Our answer to problems of economy was generally the cyclecar (HMN, May 2010) and Model T, but in Europe, they long found a niche. They go back just about as far as the automobile, to the 1886 Benz Motorwagen, but while Benz moved quickly to four-wheelers, others, like Cyklon-Maschinenfabrik, stuck with three.
The Cyklon factory in Rummelsburg (today part of western metropolitan Berlin) opened in 1901, producing French Werner motorcycles under license. These used a small single mounted directly over the front wheel, driving it via a belt. A year later, apparently thinking "two wheels good, three wheels better," they introduced the Cyklonette, looking much like their motorcycle, with a wicker carriage body over steel tube frame grafted onto the back.
With the 450cc, 3.5hp air-cooled engine, the original Cyklonette made 22 MPH or so, but more importantly, delivered 30 MPG or better, and larger engines could easily be fitted. They soon refined their design into a more elegant shape and lowered the engine over the side of the wheel, allowing for direct drive from the crankshaft.
In 1910, New York's Richard R. Darre brought them to his Sterling Garage at 2 West Ninetieth Street as competition for the domestic two-front, one-rear-wheel Kelsey Motorette, and primarily marketed them as urban light-delivery vehicles, which appears to have been their primary use in Saxony as well. They attracted some attention as part of the "German Invasion" at the independent International Auto Show, where they were praised for quality construction and ease of use.
Tax benefits helped them find enough popularity in metropolitan areas such as Berlin and Frankfurt (and to a lesser extent London, Paris and elsewhere) that Cyklon made them for 20 years (then switching to conventional cars until their demise in 1929), and the word Cyklonette became a generic term for any German three-wheeler. There were at least 11 different makes by 1914. Only Cyklon and rivals Phänomobil and Neckarsulmer used an engine mounted over the front wheels, however. Cyklon continued to develop the vehicle, later introducing thermosiphon cooling and twins ranging up to 10hp, as shown above on the Berlin taxi from 1920. Larger engines did necessitate a return to indirect chain drive. Cyklonettes even found work at the front during the Great War, primarily as mail couriers where a motorcycle was a little too small.
It does not appear they found much work in America, though, where we are not aware of any remaining, but you can sometimes find them in Europe for sale; in museums; and on events such as the London-to-Brighton run.

This article originally appeared in the August, 2011 issue of Hemmings Motor News.